OREANDA-NEWS. July 30, 2014. Estonia has closed the its borders to Lithuanian pork and established a buffer zone in southern counties in fears of a disease that could harm a vital agricultural sector.

Four days after a first-ever case of the African swine fever was reported in Poland, setting off a wave of animal destructions in nearby countries, the Estonian Veterinary and Food Board announced temporary protective measures effective July 24, Postimees daily reported.

"In connection with the suspicion that African swine fever (ASF) has spread to areas on the territory of Lithuania where there was a lack of previously established protective measures for preventing the spread of ASF, pork of Lithuanian origin and products containing it are prohibited to be imported to Estonia as of July 24 as a cautionary measure," the agency said on its website.

It said the ban would be lifted as soon as it turned out that the "suspicion was disproved or the spread halted."

No virus has been found in Estonia yet. But Latvia and Lithuania have reported cases, with Lithuania taking rush steps to destroy thousands of animals this week.

The case in Latvia was in a dead wild pig, in Ergeme municipality near the Estonian-Latvian border towns of Valga and Valka. Latvia's veterinary board director says the diseases moving north at a speed of 300 kilometres a year, uudised.err.ee reported.

"We are working hard to keep the disease from spreading domesticated animals," the head of Estonia's Veterinary and Food Board, Ago Partel, told Postimees.

A buffer zone was established and covers parts of Valga and Viljandi counties.

The disease affects domesticated and wild pigs, has an incubation period of 3-15 days, has a near 100 percent mortality rate in its acute form, and there is no vaccine or cure. Humans and other animals do not contract the disease but can transmit it. The virus remains viable in frozen meat for years and in animal remains, it can survive for months.